Homer Hasenpflug Dubs (March 28, 1892 – August 16, 1969) was an American
sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
and polymath. Though best known for his translation of sections of
Ban Gu
Ban Gu (AD32–92) was a Chinese historian, politician, and poet best known for his part in compiling the ''Book of Han'', the second of China's 24 dynastic histories. He also wrote a number of '' fu'', a major literary form, part prose ...
's ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...
'', he published on a wide range of topics in ancient Chinese history, astronomy and philosophy. Raised in China as the son of missionaries, he returned to the United States and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy (1925). He taught at University of Minnesota and Marshall College before undertaking the ''Han shu''
translation project
A translation project is a project that deals with the activity of translating.
From a technical point of view, a translation project is closely related to the project management of the translation process. But, from an intercultural point of vi ...
at the behest of the American Council of Learned Societies. Subsequently, Dubs taught at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and
Hartford Seminary
The Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary) is a private theological university in Hartford, Connecticut.
History
Hartford Seminary's origins date back to 1833 when the Pastoral Union of Connectic ...
. In 1947, Dubs moved to England to take up the
Chair of Chinese at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, which had been vacant since 1935. He retired in 1959 and remained in Oxford until his death in 1969.
Early years
Homer H. Dubs, like many early American sinologists, had his introduction to the subject as the child of missionary parents in China. Born in
Deerfield, Illinois
Deerfield is a north shore suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion extending into Cook County, Illinois. The population was 19,196 at the 2020 census. Deerfield is home to the headquarters of Walgreens Boo ...
, he spent his childhood in
Hunan Province. He studied briefly at
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
and then graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
(1914) with a major in philosophy. Subsequently, he earned an
A.M. in philosophy at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and a
B.D. at
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
. He returned to China as a missionary, studying Chinese in
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
before moving on to work in Hunan. Returning from China, Dubs attended the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and earned a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in philosophy in 1925 with a dissertation entitled "The Philosophy of Hsüntze: Ancient Confusionism
'sic''as Developed in the Philosophy of Hsüntze", which was the basis for his later two-volume work on the ''
Xunzi''. After receiving his degree, Dubs taught philosophy, first at
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
(1925–27) and then at Marshall College (1927–34).
[Luther Carrington Goodrich. Homer Dubs (1892-1969), ''Journal of Asian Studies'', 29 (1970): 889-91.]
Research and publishing
Throughout his life, Dubs researched and published on a wide range of topics in
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developmen ...
and history. In the mid-1930s he was commissioned by the
American Council of Learned Societies
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
to undertake the work for which he would become best known, a translation of
Ban Gu
Ban Gu (AD32–92) was a Chinese historian, politician, and poet best known for his part in compiling the ''Book of Han'', the second of China's 24 dynastic histories. He also wrote a number of '' fu'', a major literary form, part prose ...
's
''Han shu''. During 1934-37, Dubs worked on the translation assiduously with three Chinese collaborators, Jen T'ai, C.H. Ts'ui, and P'an Lo-chi. They produced a copiously annotated three-volume translation of the "Annals" section of the ''Han shu'' (chapters 1-12) and the three chapters (99A,B&C) devoted to
Wang Mang
Wang Mang () (c. 45 – 6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun (), was the founder and the only Emperor of China, emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later ...
, published under the title ''History of the Former Han Dynasty'' (Baltimore, 1938–55). The first two volumes were awarded the coveted Prix
Stanislas Julien
Stanislas Aignan Julien (13 April 179714 February 1873) was a French sinologist who served as the Chair of Chinese at the Collège de France for over 40 years and was one of the most academically respected sinologists in French scholarship.
Ju ...
of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...
. Two companion volumes, including a prolegomena and a glossary were planned.
Dubs' publications on China (he remained interested in philosophy throughout his life) were characterized by solid scholarship and an extraordinary breadth of interests. He did pioneering work on ancient
Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twe ...
, in particular the observance of eclipses. But the breadth of his education and interests combined with a fertile mind to lead him into curious directions. One was his development of an idiosyncratic system of
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
in which the
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
were replaced by a system of letters and numbers that indicated the pronunciation, tone and constituent elements of the original Chinese graph.
[David B. Honey. ''Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology.'' American oriental series, v. 86. New Haven, Conn: American Oriental Society, 2001, 261-5] Thus, ''Qian Han shu'' (Wade Giles ''Ch'ien Han shu'') 前漢書 was rendered Ts'ien2R Han4SU-shu1WE. Although he represented his system as a variation on the widely used
Wade Giles
Wade, WADE, or Wades may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Wade, California, a former settlement
* Wade, Maine, a town
* Wade, Mississippi, a census-designated place
* Wade, North Carolina, a town
* Wade, Ohio, an unincorporated commun ...
romanization, the field declined to adopt his "Wade-Dubs" system. Indeed, it was his insistence on using the system for the remaining volumes of ''History of the Former Han Dynasty'' that prevented them from being published.
Another direction Dubs' interests took him was the pursuit of
contacts between Han China and the Roman empire. He wrote several articles on the subject, culminating in the controversial ''A Roman City in Ancient China''. This work purported to show that a
Roman legion
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of ...
that had been part of the army of
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115 – 53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome." Wallechinsky, David & Wallace, I ...
defeated at the
Battle of Carrhae
The Battle of Carrhae () was fought in 53 BC between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire near the ancient town of Carrhae (present-day Harran, Turkey). An invading force of seven legions of Roman heavy infantry under Marcus Licinius Cra ...
in 53 B.C. had settled in
Northwestern China
Northwest China () is a statistical region of China which includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. It has an area of 3,107,900 km2.
The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid con ...
. The defeated legion, Dubs speculated, had been relocated further east by the victorious
Parthians Parthian may be:
Historical
* A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran
* Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)
* Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language
* Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
, for whom they fought in a battle against the Han. Defeated again, they were settled at a place called
Liqian
Liqian () was a county established during the Western Han dynasty and located in the south of modern Yongchang County, Jinchang, in Gansu province of Northwest China. The Western Han inhabitants of the county had migrated to the area from western ...
located in modern
Yongchang County
Yongchang County () is a county located in the southern half of the prefecture-level city of Jinchang in north-central Gansu province, China, bordering Qinghai to the south. It has been associated with the historical Liqian and Fanhe counties. The ...
,
Jinchang
Jinchang () is a prefecture-level city in the centre of Gansu province, People's Republic of China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north.
Geography
Jinchang City is located in central Gansu province, west of the Yellow River, north of the Qi ...
,
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
province. Although this story has been seized upon by enthusiastic Chinese of the area and non specialist Westerners, at least two eminent Chinese authorities have shown that the notion has serious shortcomings.
Later teaching and activities
Following publication of the first volume of ''History of the Former Han Dynasty'', Dubs taught at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
and its Divinity School,
Columbia and the
Hartford Seminary
The Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary) is a private theological university in Hartford, Connecticut.
History
Hartford Seminary's origins date back to 1833 when the Pastoral Union of Connectic ...
. He also worked on the Chinese History Project of the
Institute of Pacific Relations
The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity ov ...
with
Karl August Wittfogel
Karl August Wittfogel (6 September 1896 – 25 May 1988) was a German-American playwright, historian, and sinologist. He was originally a Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party of Germany, but after the Second World War, he was an e ...
at Columbia University. Finally, in 1947 he was invited to join the faculty at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he took up the
chair of Chinese that had been occupied by eminent pioneer Sinologists
James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London ...
and
William Edward Soothill
William Edward Soothill, (1861 – 1935) was a Methodist missionary to China who later became Professor of Chinese at University College, Oxford, and a leading British sinologist.
Life
Born in Halifax, Yorkshire in January 1861, Soothill m ...
. He retired from Oxford in 1959 and subsequently spent the 1962-63 academic year at the University of Hawai'i and lecturing in Australia. He lived in Oxford until his death in 1969.
As a person, Dubs was characterized by his generosity and his eccentricity. He was once described as a "
Spinozan saint who had missed some of the bigger academic plums because he wouldn't press his pants" and offended some of the Oxford dons by parking his motorcycle in the hallway. Like some others at Oxford, he also dabbled a bit in the occult. But he was an erudite and respected scholar, and his former student
David Hawkes remembered "was always able to relate what he studied as an academic with what he had lived through as a younger man and to remind us by anecdote or example that the ancient texts he taught formed part of a continuum with the living present."
David Hawkes. "Tribute to Prof. Homer H. Dubs."
/ref>
At Professor Dubs' death, the material planned for the two companion volumes to the ''History of the Former Han Dynasty'' remained unpublished. A group of scholars reworked the manuscripts said to total over 1000 pages to replace the romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
and render it acceptable to an academic press. Responsibility for it was taken over by the Han Dynasty History Project at the University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
, where Wittfogel had gone after leaving Columbia. Unfortunately, at the death of the Han Project's director, Jack Dull
Jack L. Dull (January 2, 1930 – January 18, 1995) was an American scholar of the history of Han China and a professor at the University of Washington.
Biography
Born in 1930, Dull began his lifelong association with the University of Washington ...
, the manuscript still had not been published, and with the end of the project, the materials were scattered and some of them lost. Recently, however, the lossarymaterials have been recovered and are gradually being made available on-line, as have been the three volumes o
''History of the Former Han Dynasty''
Together with the already published materials, they constitute a nearly complete translation or paraphrase of the entire ''Han shu''.
Publications
*''Hsüntze: The Moulder of Ancient Confucianism''. Probsthain's Oriental Series 15. London, 1927.
*(trans.) ''The Works of Hsüntze''. Probsthain's Oriental Series 16. London,1927.
*''Rational Induction: An Analysis of the Method of Science and Philosophy.'' Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1930.
*(trans.) ''The History of the Former Han Dynasty''. 3 vols. Baltimore: Waverly, 1938–55
Digitized text.
(Digitized text does not retain volume or page numbers and alters Dubs' footnote numbering.
Glossary.
*"Did Confucius Study the Book of Changes?" ''T'oung Pao'' 25 (1928): 82-90.
*"The Failure of the Chinese to Produce Philosophic Systems." ''T'oung Pao'' 26 (1929): 96-109.
*"'Nature' in the Teaching of Confucius." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 50 (1930): 233-37.
*"A Comparison of Greek and Chinese Philosophy." ''Chinese Social and Political Science Review'' 17.2 (1933): 307-27.
*"Solar Eclipses During the Former Han Period." ''Osiris'' 5 (1938): 499-532.
*"The Victory of Han Confucianism." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 58 (1938): 435-39.
*"Wang Mang and His Economic Reforms." ''T'oung Pao'' 35 (1940): 219-65.
*"An Ancient Military Contact Between Romans and Chinese." ''American Journal of Philology'' 42 (1941): 322-30.
A Roman Influence Upon Chinese Painting."
''Classical Philology'' 38 (1943): 13–19.
*"An Ancient Chinese Mystery Cult." 'Harvard Theological Review' 35 (1942): 221-40.
*(with Robert S. Smith) "Chinese in Mexico City in 1635." "The Far Eastern Quarterly" 1.4 (1942): pp. 387–389.
*"A Military Contact Between Chinese and Romans in 36 B.C." ''T'oung Pao'' 36 (1942): 64-80.
* "The Political Career of Confucius." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 66 (1946): 273-82.
* "The Reliability of Chinese Histories." ''Far Eastern Quarterly'' 6.1 (1946): 23-43.
* "Taoism." In H. F. MacNair, ed. ''China''. United Nations Series. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1946: 266-89.
* "The Beginnings of Alchemy." ''Isis'' 38 (1947): 62-86.
* "The Date of Confucius' Birth." ''Asia Major'' (new series) 1.2 (1949): 139-46.
* "The Date of the Shang Period." ''T'oung Pao'' 40.4-5 (1951): 323-35.
* "Mencius and Sun-dz on Human Nature." ''Philosophy East and West'' 6 (1956): 213-22.
* ''A Roman City in Ancient China''. China Society Sinological Series 5.London, 1957.
* "The Beginnings of Chinese Astronomy." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 78 (1958): 295-300.
* "The Archaic Royal Jou Religion." ''T'oung Pao'' 46 (1958): 217-59.
* "Han 'Hill Censers.'" In Søren Egerod, and Else Glahn. ''Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata. Sinological Studies Dedicated to Bernhard Karlgren on His Seventieth Birthday, October Fifth, 1959''. Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard, 1959, 259-64.
References
;Footnotes
;Works cited
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubs, Homer H.
American sinologists
1892 births
1969 deaths
Hartford Seminary faculty
Chinese–English translators
Shaw Professors of Chinese
20th-century translators